PIERRE, S.D. (AP) - The South Dakota Supreme Court has dismissed a Canadian man's secondary appeal of his murder conviction and life sentence in the 1975 slaying of a fellow American Indian Movement activist.

In a direct appeal last year, the Supreme Court upheld John Graham's conviction for taking part in the killing of Annie Mae Aquash in South Dakota.

Acting as his own lawyer, Graham filed a secondary appeal. But the Supreme Court dismissed it for procedural reasons, saying he failed to serve his motion on state officials.

Prosecutors have said Graham and two other AIM activists killed Aquash because they suspected she was a government informant.

Graham is a member of the Southern Tutchone tribe in Canada's Yukon Territory. Aquash was a member of the Mi'kmaq tribe of Nova Scotia.